Four astronauts, including NASA’s Anne McClain and Nichole Ayers, Japan’s Takuya Onishi, and Russia’s Kirill Peskov, have successfully returned to Earth after a five-month mission on the International Space Station (ISS). Their SpaceX capsule parachuted into the Pacific Ocean off the Southern California coast on Saturday, marking the company’s third Pacific splashdown with people on board and the first for a NASA crew in 50 years.
The astronauts launched in March as replacements for the two NASA astronauts assigned to Starliner’s botched demo mission. Starliner malfunctions kept Butch Wilmore and Suni Williams at the space station for more than nine months instead of a week. NASA ordered Boeing’s new crew capsule to return empty and switched the pair to SpaceX.
“Welcome home,” SpaceX Mission Control radioed as the capsule splashed down. Before leaving the space station, McClain reflected on the challenges facing people on Earth, saying, “We want this mission, our mission, to be a reminder of what people can do when we work together, when we explore together.” McClain looked forward to “doing nothing for a couple of days” once back home in Houston, while her crewmates eagerly anticipated hot showers and juicy burgers.
The SpaceX capsule’s successful splashdown demonstrates the effectiveness of the Crew Dragon’s heat shield, protecting the astronauts during re-entry into Earth’s atmosphere. The mission highlights the growing capabilities of SpaceX’s Crew Dragon spacecraft and the continued importance of the ISS for scientific research and technological advancement.
This mission was part of NASA’s Commercial Crew Program, which partners with private industry to facilitate space travel. The program’s success underscores the importance of collaboration between space agencies and private companies in advancing scientific knowledge and pushing the boundaries of human spaceflight.
The last time NASA astronauts returned to the Pacific from space was during the 1975 Apollo-Soyuz mission, a historic detente meet-up of Americans and Soviets in orbit during the Cold War years. SpaceX switched capsule returns from Florida to California’s coast earlier this year to reduce the risk of debris falling on populated areas.